Kuhn Group Sales Dip 9% in 2025 but Orders Signal Recovery
Kuhn Group recorded net sales of NZ$2.27 billion in 2025, finishing around 9% lower than in 2024.
In a move that appears to have been repeated by many equipment manufacturers, Kuhn confirms it currently working on several autonomous solutions – particularly in the area of feeding.
The first to break cover is AURA, a self-propelled ‘feeding solution’ that loads, weighs, mixes, distributes and even ‘pushes up’ feed to the barrier. Part of the ALFS (Autonomous Livestock Feeding System) that started as a concept in 2015, the finished version recently walked away with an innovation award at the recent French Space 2020 Expo.
Up front, a rotary cutterhead and conveyor system – like the one already used on the company’s full-sized mixer wagons – cuts silage directly from the clamp face and delivers it to the machine’s 3 cubic metre capacity tub.
Said to be suitable to feed a mob of up to 280 animals, the AURA tips the scales at 6.2 tonnes empty. It can travel at speeds of up to 7km/h around the yard or 2 km/h when feeding.
Currently powered by a 56hp diesel engine, Dairy News understands that a hybrid option is in the pipeline.
This will use the engine for loading and mixing and then switch to an ‘electric mode’ for feeding – helping to reduce both noise and emissions.
Guidance at the clamp is taken care of by GPS/RTK in conjunction with an odometer, while at the feeding area, LIDAR and the odometer is the chosen solution.
Red meat farmers are welcoming Labour’s plan to review the Emissions Trading Scheme and not to campaign on pricing agricultural emissions.
Where any worker in the kiwifruit industry is mistreated, we expect the authorities to take action.
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
Seed and grain companies share the concerns of arable farmers about the viability of their sector, says Seed and Grain New Zealand chief executive Dr Sarah Clark.
The New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) says unnecessary changes to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) will seriously erode investor confidence and result in significant reductions in forest planting rates.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
OPINION: It seems Canterbury processor Synlait is still in the doldrums.
OPINION: Get offside with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at your own peril.